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This was a game of IABSM fought on the 22nd of September 2012 between the Germans (played by Fasbender and Dae) and the Soviets (played by Strategos and Burt). It was a randomly generated scenario just for a bit of fun.

The Soviet advance through Belarus during the summer of 1944 as part of Operation Bagration has reached a small town. The Germans are trying to slow the Soviets down in order to gain enough time to scrape together what troops they can in an attempt to deal with the oncoming red tide. The town, already devastated, contains a couple of crossroads of strategic importance.

Quickly sending forward their light 45mm guns as an opening gambit, the Soviets prepare to advance their tanks under cover of their 75mm guns, firing down from a nearby hill.

As the battle begins, a quick shot of the town centre shows that this promises to be a very close game.

The Soviet guns engage the German 88's, deployed in the middle of an open field, but fail to achieve anything.

Meanwhile, the town remains in German hands. 

The German 88's, firing in reply from the other end of the town, manage to knock out one of the few tanks that the Soviets had available for their attack. 

But the Russian infantry take advantage of the confusion and the smoke caused by the burning tank, to advance towards where the German infantry await them in the town. 

Meanwhile, another platoon of Soviet infantry assaults a battery of German anti-tank guns. 

At the same time, the Soviet infantry poised to enter the town take cover from the hail of bullets sent their way by Herr Infantryman! 

The Germans receive reinforcements: a pair of Tigers that must surely shift the balance of victory to their favour. 

German infantry advances forward and expels the Soviets that had taken possession of their guns. 

German armour begins to emerge from their hiding places. 

The German 88 devastate the enemy artillery on the hill.

The German infantry unit in the town has been holding back the Soviet infantry advance. 

But the Soviets, do not stand idly by, and throw their BA-10 armoured cars in against the German infantry. 

On this occasion the German's patience in waiting for the Soviets to advance, combined with the tactics of hiding their armour and only sending them in to battle at the last moment, meant that they quickly threw back the helter-skelter Soviet advance despite the fact that it seemed at one point that they might lose the game.

In the end, the Soviets were left with much of their infantry bottled up in the approaches to the village without artillery support and with the only armour they had available destroyed at the beginning of the game.

A good German victory.

Burt, with some photographs from VIIII Legion
 

 
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We had a great 10mm IABSM game at Strategikon of Athens last Sunday.

The story so far; somewhere in Ukraine during summer of 1944, a German infantry company reinforced by a couple of PaK 40s and 2-3 Panzerschreck teams, holds a strong defensive position trying to stop the advance of the Soviets. The troops in the defence were dug in and there was a 18″ barbed wire to be used by the Germans. The Soviets relied on the firepower of their tank company (3xT-34/85s and the 6xT-34/76s) plus a company of mechanized infantry.

Three players for the Germans and equal number of players for the Soviets commanded about a platoon each. I kept the umpire’s role for myself.

The battle began with the Soviets entered in masse of the eastern side of the table.

Soon, the German units placed inside the woods and over the hill NE of the hamlet spotted an infantry platoon and a T-34 section as well. At first, the Soviets tried to run over the hill but soon withdrew with a lot of casualties. Paris (our new member for the IABSM games) found out in a nasty way that the game is really, as the rulebook states, the other WWII game! The remnants of the platoon after the MG42s’ fire tried to take some cover, but the unit had already lost its fighting capability.

The Germans with most of their units entrenched did not suffer great loses.

The Soviets desperate for support were pinned down by heavy machine gun fire. An artillery barrage was an emergency for the Soviets but did not arrive on time! It was that moment when Kapitan Nikolai Tsygardev (Nick) brought up a section of T34/ 85s to “clean up” the hill.

While the 85s did the job assigned to them, some flashes appeared from the hill beside the hamlet. A section of Pak 40s began to fire at the T34s from their well-prepared positions.

he crew of the T34 (#202) shocked because of their tank been targeted tried to manoeuver but an engine failure left their tank vulnerable in place.

It was a great opportunity for Jurgen’s (George) Schreck team to blew it up!

eanwhile the german platoon on the NE hill had serious problems from the HE fire into the woods. But the Germans were lucky. The badly shocked Soviet platoon couldn’t have any chance to move towards the enemy positions. It was now time for the Germans to withdraw to another position.

The Soviet's unwise approach to the hamlet cost them lives. A tank section was knocked out from the AT fire of the German company. Soviets had no courage to continue their advance. They withdrew from the battlefield and waited for reinforcements (maybe in a replay of this particular game on another day).

Our guests had already seen what an excellent game this is. I think a couple of players “recruited” in the Lardies fans from Sunday and beyond!

Vaggelis

 
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This is a game dating back to 2013, played between Burt & Strategus (the Soviets) and Gimly & Fasbender (the Germans). The Germans were to defend a pair of crossroads of high strategic importance against an all out Soviet attack.

Although the Soviets committed everything they had to the assault, the Grmans were determined not to yield, as the crossroads formed the starting point for their next counter-attack.

In the end, as has unfortunately happened a few times, we weren't able to finish the game, but at the end the Soviets were winning but had suffered heavy casualties.

Burt

 
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Lost battles usually start with successful shots

It was on the Eastern Front. The dusty road passed through a small village where factory workers had lived before the war: a gloomy, battered place largely reduced to rubble. The village stood on the shore of a shallow creek, crossed by three small, plank bridges. On the other bank were silent, peaceful woods and fields, offering a balm to the spirits of those who huddled in the trenches that scarred the ground in front of them. It is here that the Red Army unleashed its impact.

Having had the rules for some time and, for some reason, never played them, we finally got around to playing our first game of "Mum". In short, they are a company-level set of wargame rules led by card activation much like Sharpe Practice. 

The German defense was represented by a company of grenadiers (however, each of the three platoons consisted of only two squads) strengthened by three PaK 40 guns. Their commander was Johann Schmidt aka the Red Skull. 

The infantry were dug in  at the edge of the village - on the river bank, with their PaKs distributed evenly across their line of defense.


And the Russian were not long in coming. A company of submachine gun armed infantry plus support, and a company of T-34 tanks. A formidable force.
 

Russian tank company commander immediately opened fire - hitting and destroying one of the PaKs. Great start, I thought.

During the initial phase of the battle Russian tanks killed several Marines, and, finally, the German guns began to respond: accurate fire knocking out one tank and forcing the crew of another to bail out.

The Soviet infantry began to advance, their pace increasing as the tanks and PaKs continued to exchange fire.

The left hand platoon of T-34s were all KO'd, but the Germans lost their central PaK: it's crew fleeing in panic just before the gun was destroyed.

The Germans, now deprived of their guns (the third PaK was unfortunately positioned: it only covered the right side of the defense so couldn't hit the bulk of the Soviet tanks), began to retreat from their trenches.

Some ran back into the village, some into other buildings, and some into the factory units.

On the left flank, the Soviet infantry ran into a minefield, which stopped their advance after their company commander was killed.

At this point fate (well, the IABSM card deck) intervened, and suddenly the clattering of tracks was heard in the village as a platoon of StuGs came thundering through as fast as possible.

The Soviet tanks were now on the road and hurling themselves towards the village. This meant, however, that about a quarter of them now came within the firing arc of the last remaining PaK 40, with predictably explosive results!

The Command StuG carefully crawled to the edge of the village and opened fire from cover, destroying one tank and knocking bits of a second. Another StuG opened fire on the enemy infantry, but to no effect.

At this point we decided to finish the game. The advancing Red Army was completely exhausted, and the three StuGs were the last straw!

Without the self-propelled guns, of course, we would still have faced a hellish struggle for the village (Panzerfausts in the side of tanks and melee-ing infantry) so probably, at least subconsciously, we decided to avoid it! 

Whatever it was, it was a great game: great (as always) rules from the Lardies and a great opponent. Uncle Kostya - thank you so much for the game, and I'm looking forward to your report on the game.

Algiz

 
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